


I Like You Too Much

by h_itoshi



Category: AKB48, Kis-My-Ft2 (Band), Sexy Zone
Genre: Acting like you hate someone because you won't admit you like them, Alternate Universe - High School, Cheesy and cliche as hell, M/M, Random implied pairings, Some underage drinking/smoking but hey high school, halloween party
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-20
Updated: 2016-02-01
Packaged: 2018-05-15 05:36:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 20,454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5773384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/h_itoshi/pseuds/h_itoshi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If there's one person Kikuchi Fuma hates, it's Kento himself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Okay this is huge I haven't finished a chapterfic since 2010, and I've only had this lying around since like ehm. July. I had a cheesy AU in me so here it is, including some girls for the sake of realism. Yes, the title is as cheesy as the fic. Maybe a little cheesier because hey, sexy zone.

"I wish I was brave enough to just slap him in the face." Shori sighs heavily as he sits down next to Kento for lunch. "He spent the entire class chewing gum and popping those goddamn bubbles when the teacher wasn't looking, _or_ saying something important that I couldn't concentrate on."

"He'll fail maths, that's for sure." Sayaka agrees and sits down opposite Shori, next to Yui.

"So will I." Kawaei groans, choosing the seat next to Sayaka and drops her head on her best friend's shoulder.

"Yes, Rina-chan, you will, if you keep looking at pretty boys instead of studying." Shori says with a hint of exasperation in his voice. "But that's not the point!"

Kento smiles, because Shori really is the mother of their group of friends, and he's the youngest.

"He's pretty!" Kawaei objects, pouting while her hair drapes over Sayaka's shoulder like a long curly curtain.

"Is it that Senga guy?" Yui asks casually while continuing to eat, but she exchanges a roll of eyes with Shori when Kawaei lets out a distracted sigh at the mention of her crush.

"It's difficult sitting next to her in class." Sayaka says matter-of-factly, and Kawaei doesn't even listen enough to protest.

"And I'd take that over _him_ any day!" Shori is clearly still aggravated about their previous class, and the person who's placed next to him.

Kikuchi Fuma. One of those kids who live on acting cool, wearing their uniform wrong and sneaking cigarettes behind the gym at lunch, who smirks mischievously and lures in all the good girls with their bad boy aura. He's kind of a douchebag, wears his hair a little too long and keeps looking like everyone is lesser than him. And he seems to have made it his mission this year to bother Shori during classes.

"Before the teacher comes in, he sits with his shoes on the bench and asks me things." Shori continues to whine, and clearly it's more important to get this off his chest than to eat. " _About me._ Why? Like, what interest does he have with me besides making fun of me?"

"Maybe he wants to be your friend?" Sayaka suggests, but her smile says she's mocking him and Shori frowns.

"No, why would he want that? He's got his own friends." Shori still frowns, the irony clearly lost on him and Kawaei makes another hopeless sound.

Senga, the pretty boy with the curly hair, is one of Fuma's best friends, which makes Kawaei's crush even more hopeless. Or at least, very very unlikely to ever become something, since Fuma's friends are ridiculously loyal to him and his opinions about people.

And if there's one person Kikuchi Fuma hates, it's Kento.

He doesn't even know why or what he did to deserve it, it just seems like Fuma hated him from the first time he laid eyes on Kento. He remembers it clearly, how Fuma bumped his shoulder against Kento's almost as if on purpose when they walked past each other in the corridor. He remembers how Fuma turned to look over his shoulder, eyes cold as he gave Kento a long, almost despising look.

"Don't touch me." Fuma told him, and then continued walking, a couple friends trailing him, and Kento could only stand and stare in shock after him.

Back then, he didn't know Fuma's name, had never seen him before and he felt completely undeserving of that exchange. Since then, Fuma's just kept glaring at Kento whenever they see each other, and the occasional interaction is never pleasant. Normally, they don't interact at all, since Fuma is a grade under Kento and they have no friends in common, but Fuma still somehow manages to show up where Kento is.

For example now, when he's made himself a daily subject of conversation through harassing Shori.

"Maybe he likes you." Yui suggests with a grin that says she's only doing it for Shori's reaction.

His eyes widen and he sputters. "What!? He's a _guy_! An ugly, stupid guy!"

They all laugh at him until he realizes they're just playing with him and he barks at all of them to shut up and try sitting next to Kikuchi Fuma several hours a day.

 

~*~

 

"She was staring at you the whole class again." Fuma grins lazily as he picks at his food and looks up to see a certain expression.

As expected, Nikaido rolls his eyes and attacks his rice with a little more force as Senga looks up innocently. "The girl who kind of looks like Nika?"

"Yeah, that one." Fuma confirms. "She must really like you."

"I'm more worried about her math grades." Senga admits with a little concern in his voice.

"You're too nice Senga." Tomomi rolls her eyes but she smiles. "She's just a lovesick girl, she probably doesn't care about more than that your hair is extra fluffy today."

"... Fluffy good or fluffy bad?" Senga asks, a hand automatically raising to his hair.

Haruna laughs and Fuma just shakes his head.

"Good." Nikaido says simply and Senga inevitably calms down.

"Speaking of math grades, how're yours now that you're next to Little Genius?" Tomomi asks casually and looks at Fuma with a teasing look.

Fuma just glares at her, completely unimpressed. "Shut up."

Tomomi grins knowingly and keeps eating as Haruna picks up conversation. "Why are you on about him so much anyway? Hoping to get something juicy on Nakajima out of him?"

Luckily, Fuma's well trained in not blushing.

"He annoys me, that's all." He mutters, then returns to his food.

"I think he's pretty cute, for being so young." Haruna muses, and Nikaido snorts a laugh.

"You're only two years older, geez."

"Sorry, who are we talking about, who's cute?" Senga asks, having been lost in a mail on his phone for enough minutes to miss out.

"Sato, I think?" Fuma has to double check.

"Oh, yeah. That prude look does have something." Senga shrugs, then gives Nikaido's melon soda a long look. "Babe, can I have some of that?"

Nikaido hands it over without even looking, and Fuma has to hide his grin. Not even Nikaido's girlfriend gets to call him 'babe', but Nikaido accepts anything from Senga.

"Nakajima's really cute too." Haruna smiles, and even though Fuma knows she's teasing, he also knows that there's some truth in that statement.

And when the others agree, he can't quite keep the frown off his face.

 

~*~

 

"No, that's why I never manage to-" They're heading to their afternoon classes when there's suddenly a blushing girl standing before Kento in the corridor, and he trails off. "Hello?"

"Nakajima-kun." She says nervously, glancing around at his friends who all stopped as well. "Can I talk to you?"

"Yeah, sure." Kento sends pointed looks around him, and his friends start walking again, even though Sayaka does something wavy with her hands mouthing "confession~" and Kawaei shrugs in a way that could only mean "she's not so bad", then they both grin.

Kento wants to roll his eyes at them, because really, these are someone's feelings and they're not something to make fun of no matter how often it happens, but figures he doesn't want the girl to see that so he refrains.

He turns to her, tilting his head as he tries to remember if he knows who she is. She looks kind of like any other girl he can't name, sweet, round face and dark bangs, a braid like a diadem on her head that he can see clearly as she hangs her head a little.

"Nakajima-kun... I... I made you this." She says, almost rushing as she holds out a small box with a silken ribbon wrapped around it, and he accepts it quietly, already pretty certain what it is. "I... I really like you."

She bites her lip and looks at the ground, and he does feel something, even though it's mostly that his heart hurts a little for her because he doesn't even know who she is.

"Thank you." He starts, then smiles a little when she looks up. "I'm not sure I can accept those feelings when I don't even know your name."

"Kojima Natsuki." She hurries to introduce herself, bowing.

"Hi." He says with a small smile, making sure he remembers her face because it would be so awkward if he doesn't. "I don't think I know you."

"No I... Sorry." She says apologetically, looking a bit like she might cry, and so Kento decides to at least give her a chance, because he wants to be fair.

"I could take you on a date?" He offers, and she immediately looks up, eyes wide with surprise. "To get to know you and see if I like you too."

She smiles, a cute smile that makes him feel like he made the right decision, and he takes her phone number and promises to text her when he doesn't have class in two minutes.

Just as she turns to leave, the smile on her face not hiding anything, Kento looks up as people pass in the corridor and accidentally looks straight into Kikuchi Fuma's eyes, which are cold and almost disgusted. They only look at each other for a second, since Fuma and his friends just walk past him, but it's enough to lower Kento's spirits considerably as he hurries to class, and he has no idea why that look bothers him so much.

"So what did she want?" Yui asks Kento as they leave their class to meet up with the three younger ones.

"She told me she likes me and gave me a present." Kento says, sighing a little.

"What's she, second this week?" Yui grins and Kento rolls his eyes. He doesn't want to think of it like that.

"Does it matter?" He mutters. "It feels rude to talk about them like a number."

"Kento-kun, this is exactly why they all fall head over heels for you when they don't even know you." Yui shakes her head like he's stupid. “Rumours wander and you're way too romantic."

"There's no such thing as too romantic." Kento tells her, frowning. "You should be a bit more romantic yourself."

It doesn't get better when they find the other three.

"So, Kojima Natsuki huh?" Is the first thing Kawaei says, grinning. "She's pretty cute, I've met her a couple times. Did you ask her out?"

"I usually do, right?" Kento replies, and Sayaka rolls her eyes just like Yui had, and he sighs. "What?"

"You have no obligation to?" Sayaka says. "Aren't you really bored of dates with girls you've never met before who just blushes and replies with stuff like 'whatever you like'? Maybe you should save your time, not to talk about money, for someone _you_ like."

"It's nice of you all to care, but no, I think they should all have the same chance after they worked up enough courage to confess." Kento settles firmly and the girls all sigh like he's hopeless while Shori just looks at him with a mix of dejection and awe. "Besides, there's no one I like right now anyway, so who knows, I might like one of them."

"Well, it's easy to tell why they love you so much." Shori sighs as well before returning to his book.

 

~*~

 

"So tell me, what's the matter?" Haruna asks as she puts the lighter back in Fuma's pocket.

"What matter?" Fuma frowns, already halfway through his cigarette and tries to pretend like he has no idea what she's talking about.

"Look, even Nika can tell there's something, you've been moping for days." Haruna says, giving Fuma a knowing look from under brown bangs while exhaling smoke. "Senga's making theories."

"What, why?" Fuma asks with a little pain in his voice, knowing Senga probably has ideas worse than the real deal. Or would, if things could actually be worse than the real deal.

Haruna smiles. "Doesn't he always?"

Fuma shrugs, thinking that she has a point. Senga's the one they go to about sensitive stuff, and unfortunately he's taken it upon himself to be the group therapist, and hence knows them all a little too well. It's just a saving grace that he doesn't smoke or he'd probably know everything there is to know about Fuma.

"There's nothing." He says casually, hoping Haruna will let it go.

"I'm a girl, don't get passive with me, I know what it means." Haruna says calmly and Fuma grumbles.

"... You know who Kojima Natsuki is?" He mutters finally and Haruna rolls her eyes before shaking her head.

"Not someone related to me at least. Someone you like?"

"No." Fuma glares at her and Haruna laughs, setting the cigarette back to her lips as Fuma angrily finishes his own. "I don't like her at all actually."

"Oh? What's she done?" Haruna tilts her head in interest, leaning back against the wall.

"She's annoying." Fuma frowns, but he doesn't know what else to say to make his concerns about her even remotely mature.

"You sound like a girl." Haruna tells him, watching Fuma fumble to light a new cigarette.

"Shut up." Fuma mutters, already regretting he started saying anything at all and busies himself with his cigarette.

"... That's not very nice of you." Haruna says, but she looks so smug that Fuma doesn't regret it one bit. "It can't be... that you're jealous?"

Fuma turns to glare at her for real. "You're not fucking serious, what the hell for?"

Haruna just shrugs and stubs her cigarette, then walks past Fuma to get inside with that smug smile still on her face.

Fuma turns away, deciding to mope a little more and then shape up. It's not his fault he's not a plant or a rock or something and has feelings too. He hears the door open, and Haruna's surprised voice giving a little yelp, then a voice he'd unfortunately know anywhere.

"Oh my god sorry!"

Fuma turns, and sees Haruna sitting on the ground, looking mostly surprised as Nakajima Kento hurries to reach for her to help her up. It takes Fuma a few seconds to understand that they bumped into each other in the door, and by then Kento's already helped her to her feet and apologized three more times while his friends roll their eyes at him.

Fuma frowns, and takes the few steps forward to check on her. "Haruna-chan, you okay?"

"Sure." She says, brushing dirt from her skirt and gives him a look that is almost anticipation, and it just makes Fuma more irritated as he turns to look at Kento.

"Watch where you're going." He tells him, and Kento's expression immediately goes from that stupid concern to almost exasperation, his large dark eyes narrowing a little.

"I've already apologized." He says, seemingly uncertain how harsh he can let his tone be in front of the ladies since he keeps glancing at Haruna like he wishes for her to leave.

"Kento-kun, it's not worth it." Shori says from behind Kento, and Fuma sends him an unimpressed glare that Shori returns. This encounter is probably not going to make their bench-neighbours relationship any better, Fuma thinks.

For once though, Kento doesn't listen to his friends, but keeps looking steadily at Fuma with an expression Fuma's never seen on him before. Irritation. "I don't see why I have to apologize to you when I already have apologized to her."

Fuma opens his mouth to respond, but then there's a hurried voice from one of the girls. "Teacher!"

And suddenly Fuma realizes he has a cigarette in his hand and that Haruna and himself definitely smell like smoke, and as Kento turns to look towards the door, he does something he barely has time to think about. Pulls his cigarettes from his pocket and slips them into Kento's.

He's not sure why, but he knows he doesn't have time to get rid of his own evidence and he's not going down on his own. Kento could use some time off from his honour-student-piedestal.

He doesn't even have time to drop his cigarette before their gym teacher is in the doorway, sniffing in the air and immediately his eyes are drawn to the smoking stick in Fuma's hand.

“What's this Kikuchi-kun?” He asks, tone a little silky and Fuma just rolls his eyes while putting the cigarette out.

“Fine, give me detention and be over with it.” He mutters, and Kento gives him a weird glance that he just answers with a raised eyebrow.

“Oh should I?” Their teacher asks, patience very low with Fuma as usual. “Then who else should I give detention to just get it over with?”

Fuma notices Haruna shift beside him, and slowly speaks up. “Nakajima-kun.”

Kento turns and stares at him, gaping a little and he looks so horrified Fuma almost laughs. But he keeps his neutral face while their teacher's eyes narrow as he's not used to Fuma naming partners in crime.

“Nakajima-kun?” He asks, and Kento almost seems to cower before him.

“No no, sensei, I haven't, definitely not.” He assures, and Fuma makes a face at how desperate he sounds to defend himself.

Their teacher steps forward, sniffing in the air. “It sure smells like it. Empty your pockets.”

Fuma mentally high fives himself because Haruna's the one smelling but who would think that of her pretty face, and Kento's look of horror when he finds the pack of cigarettes in his pocket is priceless.

Their teacher crosses his arms when the pack sees light as Kento looks at it, completely bewildered, and he looks betrayed by one of his best students. “Well I guess there's detention waiting for you too later today then Nakajima-kun.”

Kento tries to protest, but falls silent after a stern look, and no one else dares saying anything, and their teacher leaves after a thorough sniffing in the direction of Kento's friends.

“See you later Nakajima-kun.” Fuma grins as he snatches his cigarettes back from Kento's open hand with a victorious gesture, then hurries inside with Haruna in tow, who just keeps staring at him with a mix of awe and something knowing.

“What?” Fuma asks when she doesn't stop wearing that expression after the first corridor.

“Nothing.” She makes an innocent face, then smiles again and continues ahead. “Have fun with Nakajima later.”

“... You could at least say thanks.” Fuma mutters, but he's happy she walks before him because he can't entirely stop his blush which he has no idea why it's there.

 

~*~

 

“Yeah, so I'm thinking themed cupcakes, lots of decorations, awesome costumes, lots of people...” Kawaei rambles on about the Halloween party she's hosting in a few weeks, and Sayaka and Yui happily chatter on about costume suggestions and recipes while Shori looks at them like he can't believe their energy.

“I hate costume parties.” He mutters to Kento as they head down the stairs inside. “Makes me feel like I'm five years old.”

Kento smiles even though his mood is anything but happy right now. “It's okay, grown up costume parties are an excuse to make out with people and then pretend you don't recognize them afterwards.”

Shori makes a face. “Iew, no thanks.”

Kento grins and pats Shori's shoulder. “Your hormones will wake up eventually too, then you'll realize how many girls there is who want to make out with you.”

“Cut it out, not everyone is as popular as you.” Shori rolls his eyes, but he doesn't sound too bothered. “Are you going home or heading somewhere? I'd like some coffee.”

Kento groans, slowing down as they're approaching the crossing corridor where he will have to turn. “No, I've got... Detention.”

The word tastes bad in his mouth and Shori's eyes widen in recognition before he nods compassionately. “Right, I completely forgot. I told you he's nothing but trouble, I hate him.”

“I genuinely feel like punching him.” Kento admits, stopping completely. The girls just continue on with their giggling.

“Don't do it though.” Shori advises with a small smile, before raising his hand. “ Good luck, I'll see you tomorrow.”

“Yeah I'll try not to.” Kento sighs, then watches Shori leave for a few seconds before turning to head for the classroom he's assigned, wondering what detention's like because he's never had one before. And wouldn't have if it wasn't for Kikuchi Fuma.

When he opens the door, Fuma's already there, weighing on a chair with his feet on the desk and his arms crossed over his chest. Their teacher looks up when Kento steps inside, and gives him another look of disappointment that makes Kento want to smack Fuma straight in the face even more.

“Good, you're here. I expect you both to stay until 5.30. I have other business to attend to, but if either of you are not here when I return, I'll report you.” He says sternly, and Kento feels like a stone drops on his shoulders.

“What?” He asks weakly, because he's _not_ being alone with Fuma for 2 hours.

“Behave. Shoes on the floor.” Their teacher orders, giving Fuma a glare that makes him raise an eyebrow but let his feet down on the ground, then leaves the room and closes the door firmly behind him, leaving the silence ringing in the room.

Fuma gives Kento a long look that is nothing but condescending and lazily sets his feet back on the desk, clearly intent on not doing any school work.

“Welcome to detention.” He smirks a little, and something snaps inside Kento because this is so _unfair_.

“What is your problem?!” He bursts out, voice louder than he expected, and clearly louder than Fuma expected as well since he looks a little surprised for a second. “What have I ever done to you!?”

Fuma shrugs carelessly and Kento's hands curl into fists. He's good at handling things normally. He's pretty patient. He could handle Fuma hating him for no reason from a distance, but he's so done with it when it actually interferes with his life.

“You're really stuck up, aren't you?” Fuma asks slowly, and the low drawl of his voice is almost as infuriating as what he's saying.

“You're a real douchebag, aren't you?” Kento counters, not bothering to act nice anymore.

Fuma chuckles, leaning back to weigh on the chair again. “I get that a lot. What do you hear a lot? That you're the perfect boy?”

Kento purses his lips in irritation, but he has a feeling Fuma's trying to make him loose it. “What?”

“Yeah, you know, 'Nakajima-kun is so pretty and he's so smart and he's so nice and just _perfect_ '.” Fuma imitates a ridiculous girl voice and waves his hands a little at the last word, and Kento has to take a deep breath to hold his calm.

“So you hate me because you're jealous?” He asks, thinking that he's not going to let Fuma step all over him like this without fighting back.

Fuma actually laughs, then slowly stands up and heads to the window, opening it the tiny bit it can be opened. “Yeah, I'm really jealous of you. Wish I had straight A's and clever friends and cute little girls coming up to confess to me with home made chocolate.”

His tone is so patronizing that Kento feels like punching him even more but he forces himself to keep this verbal. “Then what have I done?”

Fuma digs around in his pockets without answering for a moment, then pulls out the cigarettes Kento had in his hand earlier today along with a lighter.

“... You're not seriously doing that here are you?” Kento has to ask, because shit it's going to smell and they'll be reported and there goes his chance of getting into a good university.

Fuma rolls his eyes and places a cigarette between his lips. “See, that's the thing. You're so good and obedient and people like you piss me off so bad. Thinking you're better than everyone just because you do what people tell you. Have you ever broken a rule or done something forbidden?”

Kento is almost inclined to tell him that in fact yes he has and is about to give him a list, but then figures it's none of Fuma's goddamn business. “Yeah, but think what you want.”

Fuma lights his cigarette and Kento watches miserably, thinking that it might be his future Fuma's turning into smoke. But the teacher has to believe him, right? It's his words against Fuma's and they can't have lost faith in him just like that. Maybe the smell even has time to go away within two hours.

“You want one?” Fuma offers mockingly, supposedly noticing his facial expression and Kento lifts his eyes to glare at Fuma instead. “Might as well do what you're already punished for.”

The smell of smoke slowly curls through the air and Kento makes a face because that smells gross, and apparently it answers Fuma's question.

“See? Such a good boy.” Fuma says, but he meets Kento's glare and he's such an _asshole_.

“I seriously feel like punching you.” Kento tells him firmly before he can filter things between his brain and mouth, and one of Fuma's eyebrows shoot up as Kento steps closer, barely a metre between them.

“Yeah?” He grins, and Kento has a feeling this is exactly what Fuma wanted but he's too riled up to really care.

“Yeah.” He confirms instead, standing his ground now that he said it.

“Go ahead, do it, I'd love to see that.” Fuma keeps grinning and holds his cigarette towards the window as he seemingly waits.

Kento wants to, he really does, but then the idea of actually doing it for _real_ feels really uncomfortable. He doesn't even know how to hit someone, and he couldn't deal with the consequences of actually physically hurting someone.

Fuma clearly sees his resolve crumble and gives him another annoyed glare, before sucking a breath from his cigarette.

“I knew you couldn't do it.” He says, breathing out smoke straight in Kento's face while he speaks, and Kento is pretty sure he'll change his mind about that punch rather soon.

 

~*~

 

“So what are your plans for Halloween?” Haruna asks while looking at her phone during lunch the next day.

Fuma's busy tearing pieces of his last homework paper to make paper planes with Nikaido so they don't really pay her any attention, but Senga pouts.

“Nothing yet, we should get plans.” He says, giving Fuma and Nikaido a pointed glance.

“I might have plans with a few girl friends, but nothing settled yet.” Tomomi shrugs, lazily turning a page in her porn/fashion magazine that Nikaido keeps questioning her reading in public, but she just defends herself with that the idol boys are hot naked.

“Because I think I just got a plan for us.” Haruna explains, still reading on her phone. “This Kawaei-girl, the one who keeps staring at Senga during class, she's hosting a party and I'm invited and asked to bring my friends.”

“She just wants to get into Kenpi's pants, doesn't sound like that much fun.” Nikaido mutters and accidentally or not tears his paper plane apart.

Fuma doesn't say anything, instead waits for the others.

“Who else are going?” Senga asks, ignoring both of their comments about him in favour of finding out details of the party.

“Looks like everyone is.” Haruna says, probably scrolling through an attendee list on Facebook.

“Did Yui-chan invite you?” Tomomi asks, attention still with her magazine.

“Yeah. Long story short, we're very invited.” Haruna confirms, then looks up from her phone. “Costume competition, games, and we bring our own drinks.”

“Sounds good.” Tomomi says, then looks up with a grin and Fuma wants to slap her a little. “I'd go just to watch Team Nakajima drunk. Bet Sato's a sappy one.”

“Bet Sato's not drinking at all.” Fuma tells her. “He'd probably make a face and say something about how alcohol molecules interact with your cells.”

Tomomi laughs while Haruna grins and Senga calls him mean.

“... Is alcohol a molecule? Isn't it a liquid?” Nikaido asks seriously, frowning, and everyone just laughs at him good-naturedly until Senga carefully explains things to Nikaido while the girls start discussing their costumes. Fuma joins their conversation and tries not to feel too excited about the party.

 

~*~

 


	2. Chapter 2

“Is this good?” Kawaei looks at herself in the mirror for what feels like the 164th time, and even Sayaka's getting tired of her.

“ _Yes!_ ” She tells her best friend and then tugs her away from the mirror. “You look gorgeous now go fix up on the cupcakes or something.”

“Oh. Okay.” Kawaei agrees, absentminded, still making a move to get back to the mirror until Sayaka grabs her shoulders and guides her towards the kitchen. “Yui-chan! Come get her!”

Yui peeks out from the kitchen, puffy twintails hanging a little as she tilts her head. “Rina-chan, you look gorgeous!”

“Really?!” Kawaei squeals, but then finally agrees to join Yui in the kitchen.

Sayaka heaves a deep sigh and sits down on the edge of the coffee table before the couch. “Wow.”

“She's really focused, isn't she?” Kento tries, but he tired of reassuring Kawaei she was pretty after five times.

He sits with Shori in the couch, and has done so for at least half an hour, waiting for the girls to get ready, but he's pretty sure Shori's asleep by now.

“Yeah, she really likes him.” Sayaka sighs, puffing up the feather of her hat. “Just wait until she has more than a glass of sparkling.”

“I'm not sure I want to know.” Kento laughs, nudging at Shori to make sure he's awake. “Hey? She's gone now, you may return to the living.”

He jokes, because Shori's a ghost. They all questioned him when he said he'd be a ghost, asking whether he was going to wear a sheet, but Shori was determined and they gave up. When he turned up though, they were all positively surprised as he was dressed in all white and his sister had done a great make-up job with making him pale and looking a little dead but still pretty. Yui had even commented that Shori should wear white pants more often.

“Yeah?” Shori actually yawns as he sits up properly. “Is it time soon? I'm hungry.”

“Soon.” Sayaka promises with a grin that fits her character, then leans back to lie on the coffee table. “It's gonna be fun huh?”

She's a pirate, complete with feather in her hat and sword at her side, and she claimed that she was going to protect her girls from drooling dudes with it. Kento had told her that maybe she'd have to fend a few off of herself too because she looks _fierce_ in that outfit.

“Yeah, I'm excited.” Kento smiles, while Shori just yawns again and lets his head drop onto Kento's shoulder. “Hey you're getting make-up on my outfit!”

“Whatever.” Shori mutters, and Kento sighs, more concerned about Shori's enthusiasm levels than his outfit to be honest.

“Shori-chan, you should be excited too, there will be a lot of pretty girls~” Sayaka sings the last part and turns her head enough to look at them with a grin, and Kento's almost convinced Shori's rolling his eyes since Sayaka's grin widens. “Or boys if you prefer. Kikuchi-kun's coming after all?”

Shori sputters and sits up properly, loudly protesting while Kento and Sayaka just laugh at him.

Kento's not too sure how he feels about meeting Fuma again, since the last time was the detention he tries to forget he ever had. But, he figures, there will be a lot of people, he doesn't necessarily have to even see Fuma.

“He's disgusting, and so are you why are you even my friends.” Shori finishes before crossing his arms to sulk.

“Easy there.” Sayaka smiles. “You should shape up though, parties are fun.”

“What she said.” Kento agrees, correcting his crown a little. He hadn't had any ideas himself for a costume, but then Yui suggested he'd be a prince, and the other girls had been so vehemently positive about that idea that he couldn't pick anything else.

“We're done!” Yui suddenly calls, and as Kento turns to look, she's bringing a tray with glasses on, Kawaei following while fuzzing with her long loose curls.

It's a good thing Sayaka intends to protect those two, Kento thinks. Yui's a cheerleader, her skirt really short and crop top really tight, and with her twin tails, she probably looks the most like a stereotypical Halloween costume out of all of them. She's pretty, but Kento feels a little bit like her father when he kind of wants to drape his cape around her.

Kawaei's a nurse, after thorough investigation into Senga's choice of costume, and only decided after she heard he was going to be a doctor. She's also wearing this skimpy little white dress and the little hat with the cross, but her face is stunning, false lashes in place and hair long and curly spilling over her shoulder, basically looking like the nurse of any man's dreams.

Yui sets the tray down, handing out glasses with some kind of mixed drink in them.

“We're ready, let's have a great party!” She smiles, looking around at them. “And not think about the cleaning up we have to do tomorrow before Rina-chan's parents come home! Cheers!”

 

~*~

 

When they arrive, fashionably late according to Haruna's direction, they're already a little drunk, but it seems the rest of the party is too.

Haruna steps inside first, and a random guy with fluffy hair and a fluffy shirt stops and stares at her unabashedly. It's not that weird, Fuma figures, considering what she's wearing. She's supposed to be a mummy, which basically means she took her tiniest white dress and then made Tomomi wrap her in tea-soaked bandages that covers... the tiny dress basically. Senga had been sceptical, but Haruna had claimed she was aiming to make out with lots of guys and ordered Tomomi to wrap a little tighter around her boobs to give a push up effect.

Senga still didn't approve, but Haruna firmly reminded him it was thanks to her he had booze and that he should shut up and be thankful. So he did.

Haruna smiles brilliantly towards the guy and uses her seductive walk up to him, and Fuma hears Tomomi's heavy sigh.

“Get used to seeing her with something attached.” She comments as she shrugs out of her jacket.

She's a zombie, and a damn good one if Fuma is one to judge, an awesome latex make-up over her forehead and cheek that makes it look like she's rotting but still leaves her eyes and lips flawless, and her clothes are bloody and torn to show a little skin in flattering places.

“I miss my girlfriend.” Nikaido whines, easily the drunkest of them since he hogged the vodka for himself. He's a police officer, complete with handcuffs in his belt and a hat that looks like it's from a questionable sex shop. It totally works for him though.

“But baby, I'm here.” Senga tells him with a smile, also pretty drunk since Nikaido clearly felt generous, squishing Nikaido in a hug that makes the stethoscope around his neck press into Nikaido's shoulder.

“Yeah.” Nikaido agrees, grinning stupidly.

“Get a room.” Fuma tells them, but he can't help grinning at them being so drunk before they're even at the party. He's not exactly sober himself, but not as bad as them. He blames Tomomi's make-up taking really long and giving them time to drink more.

They step into the kitchen, everything decorated so over the top that Fuma almost wonders what all this shit cost, and the remains of a creepy buffet is all over every flat surface there is. Except the kitchen table where a bunch of older guys are sitting with a few starry eyed girls from their class and Fuma rolls his eyes. Just because they're older doesn't mean they're cool. After a second look though, he has to admit they're kind of hot too.

“Oh there are still cupcakes!” Senga exclaims and launches for the counter with the half-empty tray of cupcakes decorated with small ghosts and pumpkins.

“Yay!” Nikaido agrees and takes one too, while Tomomi says she's not drunk enough to forget her diet yet, which makes Fuma laugh.

They move along, and decide to head upstairs since that seems to be where most people are. There's music on the ground floor and some other music upstairs, they learn as they get up and find themselves in a huge living room full of small groups of people.

Tomomi snorts and nudges Fuma, pointing out Haruna perched on the fluffy guy's lap with a dazzling smile and slightly smudged lipgloss. “I'm gonna take a picture.”

“Why?” Fuma asks, amused, watching as Tomomi picks up her phone, but another sound distracts him from her reply.

Nikaido doesn't have an indoor voice normally, and with some alcohol in him, he's loud enough that nobody can miss hearing him.

“Hey ladies, break it up!” He hollers, heading for a couple of girls who appears to be arguing, while Senga trails after, giggling. “Police orders!”

He looks absolutely ridiculous stumbling in between them with a half eaten cupcake in his hand and holding out his hands in truce, and Fuma is laughing because this can't end well.

The girls both stare at him in confusion for a moment, but then burst out laughing, and one of them takes the cupcake from Nikaido's hand and the other plucks the hat from Nikaido's head with a flirty grin.

“Hey Fuma there you are!” Someone suddenly grabs Fuma's shoulder and he turns around to find a very tipsy, grinning Hokuto before him, and before he knows it he's dragged across the room with Tomomi following. “We've been here like two hours why are you always so late you loser?”

Hokuto keeps talking as he drags Fuma along, and Fuma calls him loser back, explaining that the cool kids drink at home first, but then something catches his eye and he doesn't listen to Hokuto's smart retort.

Nakajima Kento. Is a goddamned prince. Of fucking course.

Fuma eyes him where he sits in the corner of the couch with one of his slutty friends almost in his lap because it's cramped, clearly engaged in conversation with a tall dark-haired guy Fuma's never seen before.

He's wearing a dark red jacket with gold details buttoned all the way up, white loose pants and high boots, and there's a cape draped over one shoulder and damn if it doesn't have a fur trim. It looks try-hard and ridiculous and Fuma makes a face. Mostly at the little golden crown decorating his dark fluffy hair.

He bumps into someone as Hokuto makes a turn and he loses sight of Kento, probably for his own good, and he tries to shake the sudden wave of irritation he felt at seeing him in favour of greeting his friends.

“Fuma!” Juri yells happily and almost falls straight over a girl's lap when trying to make his way over to Fuma, his beer held high to keep from spilling anything. “Good to see you!”

 

~*~

 

It's been like three hours and Kento is pleasantly drunk. He's comfortably squished into the corner of the couch with Kawaei mostly in his lap and a plastic cup of wine in his hand, talking to a guy he's never met before. But they obviously have things in common, mostly that they're both called Nakajima and apparently are popular with the ladies.

“So pretty must be something that comes with the name!” The guy claims, and Kento raises his glass for a toast to Nakajima being the name of the pretty.

“But I'm pretty too!” Kawaei pouts, raising her cider to join the toast. She definitely doesn't need more alcohol, her cheeks pink under the layers of foundation and eyes a little glazed, so Sayaka smoothly switched her god-knows-who-mixed-this-drink to a cider with a lower alcoholic rate.

“Of course you are! Gorgeous actually!” The other Nakajima, Yuto he's called, cheers, and Kawaei grins and clinks glasses with them, having to stretch enough to reach that her boobs squish against Kento's side.

They're soft but feel a little weird, and Kento's drunk enough to ask. “Rina-chan what bra are you even wearing? Your boobs feel weird.”

Yuto just looks between Kawaei and Kento in mild interest, shamelessly glancing down at Kawaei's chest and then back up to their faces.

“It's super push-up!” Kawaei says excitedly, sounding eager to speak about it. “I bought it specially for this dress since my other push-up bras are all embellished and you'd see it through the dress. And then this was extra push-up, and smooth, so I bought it! Isn't it great? Here look at it!”

She grabs the neckline of her own dress and pulls it away from her body, leaning forward enough so that Kento and Yuto can look straight into her cleavage and at the beige push-up bra.

“It looks great.” Yuto says, sounding honest and not embarrassed at all, and Kento agrees with him, making Kawaei smile proudly.

“You probably shouldn't show that to anyone though.” Kento reprimands her, taking her hands away from her own dress and pushes her back upright. “Save it for Senga-kun.”

“Senga-kun!” Kawaei exclaims like she'd forgotten about him, looking a little horrified. “Is he here yet? Oh what if he's not coming after all!”

“He's definitely coming, calm down.” Kento tells her and reaches up to pat her head lazily, setting her little hat askew.

He looks out over the room, looking past Yui obviously flirting with a tall awkward guy who looks really good, scanning the place for Senga.

“What does this guy look like?” Yuto asks helpfully, and Kawaei explains that he's a doctor. “Huh. There's a guy in green with a stethoscope over there?”

He points towards the stairs, and Kawaei squeals and stands up way too quickly for her balance. Kento grabs her waist to keep her from falling backwards, and after a moment she's back on balance and tangles her way out from the couch, high heeled shoes left on the floor where she was sitting.

“Senga-kun?” Sayaka leans over to ask now that there's no Kawaei in the way.

“Probably.” Kento agrees, and Sayaka gets up to follow Kawaei, mumbling about her going to need support anyway.

She's not gone two seconds before another girl with a pout and bunny ears takes her seat and immediately turns to Shori, who sits calmly in the middle of things with a cider in his hands and not very drunk at all.

“Who's this Senga-kun?” Yuto asks curiously, sipping his beer.

“A hot guy in her math class.” Kento explains. “He's got curly hair.”

“There's a hot girl in my math class.” Yuto comments, and Kento tells him he's happy for him. “Yeah she's got straight hair but it's pretty.”

“Straight hair can be really pretty.” Kento agrees, but he's distracted when a girl suddenly comes up and tugs at the shoulder strap of Yuto's boxer tank top.

“We're playing truth or dare, you should come!” She tells him, then looks at Kento with a hopeful smile. “You too! Bring your friends, the more the merrier!”

“Okay.” Kento agrees with a shrug and she leaves with a smile. “Do you know her?” He asks Yuto.

Yuto shakes his head with a face that says he's never seen her before. “I wanna get to know her, she had nice fingers.”

“Then truth or dare is a great idea.” Kento tells him happily, and Yuto agrees and gets up at the same time as Kento does.

Kento turns to his friends but sees Yui is occupied, the guy now kissing her, and Shori looks really uncomfortable as the bunny girl keeps coming closer to him.

He's about to clear his throat and distract bunny girl enough for Shori to escape, but Sayaka precedes him.

“Shimazaki Haruka!” She calls, pointing with her sword in the direction of the girl, who looks up and frowns at her. “Be gone from my friend for he is not interested in you!”

Kento recognizes the name as someone Sayaka is not particularly fond of, and he can see the joy on her face when bunny girl gets up and leaves after a long glare at her.

“Thanks.” Shori says, and Sayaka grins widely until Kawaei tugs at her from behind.

“Sayaneee, I can't talk to him, you have to talk to him for me!” She whines, and Sayaka turns back to comfort her.

“Shori-chan, you wanna play truth or dare?” Kento asks cheerfully, but Shori just looks up at him with an unimpressed look.

“Definitely not.” He says firmly, and Kento pouts until Shori sighs. “But I guess looking at you making a fool of yourself is better than staying here and being molested.”

“Yay!” Kento smiles and tugs Shori along.

 

~*~

 

Fuma's not entirely sure how he got here, but he's in the kitchen with Tomomi in his lap, watching the older guys from earlier arranging a shot contest of tequila and Nikaido has volunteered to join. There's four of the older ones, and the one named Koki, who looks a bit like he's high, has stolen Nikaido's cap and put it on his head. It makes him look mostly like a dirty playboy, but his hair is curly and it looks kind of good too.

Tomomi is hopelessly trying to flirt with the guy sitting next to them, Ueda, which is probably why she's on Fuma's lap to begin with, but he's completely disinterested in her. He looks fierce, dressed up as kind of a wolf, short dark hair spiky and there's something about his aura that looks a bit lethal and probably would even without the contacts, and Fuma's just happy Tomomi doesn't seem to be getting anywhere with him.

“Okay one more!” The loudest and most cheerful of the older four, Taguchi-but-call-me-Junno, calls and Ueda pours more shots with a dangerous smirk.

Nikaido is really drunk, which just makes him more unreasonable, and even though Senga tries to tell Nikaido maybe he shouldn't have more tequila, Nikaido just dedicates each shot to one of Senga's body parts and downs another to loud cheering.

The one out of the four who looks the least like a bad boy, Naka-something, is giggling helplessly and clearly not handling his alcohol very well, leaning on Ueda's shoulder, which Fuma is surprised that he's allowed to do. Ueda was apparently banned from the shot competition because otherwise there wouldn't be a competition.

Tomomi makes a frustrated sound and shifts her weight on Fuma's lap, wrapping an arm around his neck and slides closer to be able to talk to him, and even though she's warm against him and her ass is very close to Fuma's crotch, it doesn't do anything for him.

“He's impossible.” She mutters, sounding upset, and Fuma rubs her back and laughs as Nikaido makes a pained face when another shot is poured for him.

“Maybe you should stay away then.” He suggests, and Tomomi tugs at the back of his cape to retaliate a little.

“Nika's gonna pass out.” She says instead, and Fuma's inclined to agree as Nikaido swallows his third tequila shot in a row and makes a face like he's going to die.

“Yep.” He grins, because nothing is better than seeing your friends fail.

Koki slings an arm around Nikaido's shoulder, also giggling continuously. “You can't win against us little boy!”

“I can!” Nikaido objects, but he's slurring and Senga is begging him to give up already.

“Then do you want another?” Ueda asks sadistically, and Nikaido looks at the bottle with pained disgust.

“Nika come on, no one's blaming you, these guys are vikings or something.” Senga tells him.

“Listen to your girlfriend son!” Koki calls loudly, hugging Nikaido close and it makes Nikaido look dizzy.

“He's out.” Ueda declares, and everyone around the table cheers as Nikaido's head drops to the table surface in defeat.

“It was a nice try!” Junno grins widely and orders Ueda to get on with it so he can drink Koki under the table as usual.

“Hey!” Koki objects and takes Nikaido's police cap from his head and shoves it onto Junno's.

Meanwhile, Senga's guiding Nikaido from the table and towards the sink, most likely to get him water.

“We should probably help.” Tomomi sighs, and casts one long look at Ueda, who's laughing at Junno. “We should also make sure that Haru-chan's not getting raped or something.”

“Sure.” Fuma agrees, bored with the game anyway now that Nikaido's out.

Tomomi rises from his lap and Fuma's thighs are just a little numb when he stands as well, and their chair next to Ueda is immediately taken by a random girl.

Senga's by the sink and tries to convince Nikaido to drink the glass of water in his hand. It's entertaining enough, and Fuma shoves away some nachos from the kitchen island and hops up to sit there.

“Nika, just drink this, you'll hate yourself tomorrow otherwise.” Senga tries, but Nikaido seems very distracted by determining if a bowl of something red he found is ketchup or fake blood.

“Doctor is this blood?” He asks instead, looking at Senga as straight as he can.

“I think it's sauce.” Senga tells him seriously, and Nikaido nods and agrees that blood would make a good sauce, even though that's not at all what Senga said.

“Doctor.” Nikaido starts, then sets the sauce down and takes a step closer to Senga. “Will you go out with me?”

Senga opens his mouth to tell Nikaido off, but another drunk voice interrupts him.

“Senga-kun! I've been looking for you all night!”

It's Kawaei, the party host girl who keeps looking at Senga all the time, and she's clearly really drunk, her minimal white dress slipping enough to show the tip of her beige bra.

“Hi.” Senga smiles, happily polite even though he still tries to force the water down Nikaido's throat.

“They're playing truth or dare, you should come!” She says, and Nikaido immediately lightens up.

“Oh yes we should, I want to!” He claims, and starts heading for the stairs but Senga stops him.

“If you drink this, we'll play.” He says firmly, and Nikaido grins stupidly.

“It's hot when you're this firm Doctor.” He says, and Fuma snorts with laughter, but Kawaei seems to agree with Nikaido's statement.

Nikaido obediently drinks the water, even though he spills a little on his shirt, and they head back upstairs. There are people sitting in the stairs too, and it's not difficult to recognize Haruna squeezed in next to a boy who's got his tongue down her throat, and Tomomi just laughs as they realize it's not the same brunette as last time they saw her.

 

~*~

 

Truth or dare is somehow always funniest when you don't know the people you're playing it with, Kento figures and laughs as Yuto tells his most embarrassing childhood story. It's easier to answer questions when no one is there to judge you, and the dares just get more and more about touching and less about embarrassing each other the drunker everyone gets. Of course though, Shori's sitting next to Kento and Kento's sure he didn't want to know where Kento's favourite place to have sex is, nor his description of what an orgasm feels like.

But he won't be traumatized for too long, Kento figures, making sure Shori's still got Sprite and vodka in his glass.

“I still don't see what's so fun about this game.” Shori comments as a girl stands up to go get a banana for some questionable reason.

“It's just a flimsy excuse to make out.” Kento smiles at Shori, who looks up at him with another unimpressed look, but Kento just sips more of his now spiked wine and smiles wider. “You should try it.”

“I'm not wasting my first kiss on someone who's this drunk.” Shori snorts, and Kento tells him that was a clever decision.

People come and go from the playing circle constantly, and he doesn't pay them much attention, just listens more or less intently to answers and watches dares play out, but suddenly he glances up and sees Kikuchi Fuma stand at the edge of the circle as two of his friends plop down to join the game. He's a vampire, it seems, in black pants, a red vest and a long black cape, but he doesn't appear to have the teeth. If he's taken them out or never had them is anyone's guess.

Kento's not exactly sure what he feels seeing Fuma, if he's angry or irritated or just upset that he's here to ruin the mood, but his eyes narrow because Fuma's laughing and seemingly having fun with some guys surrounding him that look a little less like douchebags than he does.

“Kento-kun!” A lot of people suddenly yell like it's hilarious, and he returns to the game before him to find out what's happening, having agreed to be called Kento in favour of there being two Nakajima's.

“What, what?” He asks quickly, and the girl next to him laughingly informs him that Senga-kun is going to show his seduction skills on Kento.

“Oh, okay.” Is all he can say, seeing Senga across the circle crawling over to where he's sitting, and a single glance up at Fuma again shows that he's not laughing anymore.

Kento is nothing if not dedicated, so he puts on an innocent face as Senga stops right before him with a small smile.

“Hey.” Senga says, and Kento tilts his head with a small questioning smile.

“Hey.” He says back, and Senga smiles for real.

Kento's pretty sure he can hear Kawaei squeal somewhere as Senga leans in, cupping Kento's cheek with his hand and he's really warm. He doesn't kiss him, but instead brushes his nose against Kento's cheekbone towards his temple, then there are lips touching his neck so briefly it honestly mostly tickles and Kento breaks character in favour of a smile but manages to hold in the laughter.

Someone behind Senga drunkenly calls for him not to cheat openly like this, and Kento actually snorts a laugh before returning to his innocent being-seduced character.

Senga's gentle and not very invasive even though he's in Kento's personal space, and it's kind of comfortable. Probably it can be blamed on Kento being drunk, but it's nice none the less.

He's a little surprised though when fingers trail down his arms while Senga's breath caresses his neck down to his shoulder, and then he's gently grabbed by the wrists and pushed backwards to loud catcalling. He still doesn't laugh when his back hits the floor and Senga hovers over him, holding his wrists above his head, because if he's going to do something he's going to do it properly, just blinks up at him like a blushing virgin. Senga seems to be satisfied like that though, and grins as he backs off and lets Kento sit up to loud laughter and applause.

“Well seduced!” Yuto calls with a grin, and Kento grins too.

“It was very convincing.” He agrees, and the game continues, Shori moving in to sit next to him again.

But Kawaei steps in before Senga can crawl back, or more likely she stumbles because she's definitely found a shot or something somewhere.

“Senga-kun! I want to talk to you!” She says, sounding almost upset, and Senga innocently looks up before he shrugs and steps out of the circle.

Kento figures he should probably take his leave too because that didn't sound good, and so he stands up as well.

Kawaei barely manages to get a few metres before she stops, and Senga looks questioningly at her.

“Senga-kun, I really like you, you know?” She starts, and Kento is wondering if he should interrupt this when he sees Sayaka approaching and figures she'll fix it. “I want you to seduce me like that, look, I even bought this new bra for your sake. It pushes up my boobs, like, lots. And that was totally hot and even though Kento-kun's my friend I thought I was gonna soak through my- Saya-chan?”

Sayaka cuts off her sluggish speech by grabbing her arm. “Come on Rina-chan, you should have some water.”

“But I'm not thirsty I just had really strong water, and I'm really busy here telling Senga-kun that I love-” She breaks off and quickly throws a hand up to cover her mouth.

“Shit.” Sayaka mutters before quickly tugging Kawaei towards the bathroom, calling for someone to come and help her while Senga stands still and looking a cross between confused and concerned.

 

~*~

 

 


	3. Chapter 3

Fuma tries not to visibly seethe, but he's pretty sure he doesn't manage, considering how Tomomi keeps glancing at him. She pulled him into a group of people she knows to distract him from walking up to Kento and probably slap him, and in a way, he's thankful, but at the same time he's had to ask thrice what the girl next to him is called because he's not listening.

Fucking Nakajima Kento with his stupid face and stupid hair and fucking Senga to touch him like that. Fuma didn't expect this reaction from himself, honestly, but he's so angry it's crawling in his veins and he wants to throw something.

“Who is that prince guy? He's really cute.” The girl next to him suddenly asks, capturing all of Fuma's attention as she points across the room to where Kento stands talking to Sato Shori with a worried expression.

“Nakajima Kento.” Fuma replies, and the name is a little too familiar on his tongue.

“Does he have a girlfriend?” She asks, and Fuma's fists clenches automatically to keep another wave of irritation under control.

“Frequently.” He says, figuring he can slap Kento verbally instead, and when she turns to look at him with a frown, he feels a little better. It's the best revenge he can get anyway, tainting Kento's perfect little reputation.

“What do you mean?” She asks, sounding suspicious.

“Well look at him, do you think he's at a lack of girls who want him?” Fuma asks, forcing himself not to turn and look at Kento even when the girl does. “Half our class probably confessed to him, and I hear he takes them all out once or twice and then moves on to the next. If you know what I mean.”

It's cruel and he knows it, because the girl looks disgusted and even though Fuma's not entirely lying, he's definitely altering the truth. But he's so sick of Kento being too perfect, too pretty and too smart and with too many damn girls around him. So if he can do something to stop them from coming, he will.

“Oh.” She comments, frowning a little. “He doesn't seem like the type.”

Fuma just shrugs, and she gets up to leave, so Fuma tries engaging in the group conversation but quickly loses track of it again. He wonders if the girl went to tell someone what he said, wonders if it'll get around, if Kento will hear it. Secretly, he hopes Kento will hear it,will confront him about it and look at only Fuma with those burning eyes like he did during detention, even if it's only the alcohol letting him admit it to himself.

“Right, Fuma?” Tomomi says loudly, and Fuma looks up to try and follow the conversation again, but he doesn't miss the knowingly disapproving look Tomomi gives him.

 

~*~

 

Kento feels a little helpless after Sayaka dragged Kawaei into the bathroom and locked the door, because he wants to help but there's apparently nothing he can do. He feels pretty sorry for Kawaei, but he can't say he's surprised with how she's been drinking like a fish on land all night because she was so nervous about Senga. Hopefully Senga was drunk enough to not remember that tomorrow anyway.

“No one ever listens to me.” Shori mutters, since he was the first one to tell Kawaei to chill with her drinking, and Kento pats his head comfortingly, messing up Shori's hair.

“It's okay, that's just because you're our mom.” He smiles, and Shori makes a face.

“Thanks, or something.” Shori rolls his eyes and jabs at Kento's waist to tickle him since his jacket is long gone and he's left in a thin white shirt that gives easy access.

Kento yelps and jumps away even though he's laughing, and bumps straight into someone behind him.

“Sorry!” He says automatically, then turns to find Yui behind him. “Yui-chan!”

“I almost didn't recognize you without a boy in your mouth.” Shori comments drily, but Yui just sticks her tongue out at him and calls him jealous.

Her pigtails are a little ruffled and uneven, but her clothing is intact and Kento is thankful for that.

“How's your party?” He asks cheerfully, since he hasn't talked to her since people started arriving.

“Tasty.” She grins, and they high five while Shori grimaces at them, but then her face turns serious and she steps a little closer. “I heard someone's talking shit about you.”

Kento looks at her, wondering if he heard right. “What?”

Shori raises an eyebrow and listens.

“Yeah, some girl told me she heard you were kind of a player who take advantage of girls who like you.” Yui explains, and Kento frowns, not sure if he's meant to feel hurt or angry or both because that's not true. “So I obviously told her she got that wrong and asked where she heard it.”

She pauses, looking like she's got something good coming, and Kento's irritation grows because he knows Yui likes drama.

“... And?” Thankfully Shori asks, sounding like he has as little patience as Kento.

“With some detours it seems to come from Kikuchi Fuma.” Yui says, smiling joylessly.

Something snaps within Kento when he hears the name, but at the same time he's not exactly surprised because _who the hell else_.

“Of course.” Shori's mouth pinches. “I hate that guy.”

“Yeah, so do I.” Kento agrees, a little unfocused since he's busy scanning the room for said guy.

“Doesn't he have anything better to do than- Hey, where are you going?” Shori cuts off his complaining to ask as Kento starts heading across the room.

“To ask what he thinks he's doing.” Kento mutters, but he doesn't exactly care if Shori hears him or not, focused on getting to Fuma and let out some of that bubbling rage inside him. He normally doesn't confront people, but clearly Fuma has some unresolved problem with him and Kento's so done dealing with it.

Fuma's back is towards him when he reaches the group of people he's laughing with at the moment, but one of Fuma's friends, Itano Tomomi, sees him as he approaches and obviously alerts the others, because when Kento stops right behind Fuma, they're all quiet and Fuma turns around to look.

The knowing smirk that spreads on his lips as he sees Kento only makes Kento angrier, because he looks like he was just waiting for this to happen.

“Nakajima?” He asks, grinning like he's on top of the world right now and Kento feels that familiar urge to punch him in the face.

“What the hell is your problem?!” He asks, not bothering to keep himself calm because Fuma doesn't even deserve a decent conversation.

“Nothing, I'm just sitting here with my friends?” Fuma says, but his feigned innocence is ruined completely by the knowing glitter in his eyes and the smirk on his face.

“I know what you've been saying about me, and I wonder how you can even bother, are you that obsessed with me?!” Kento goes on, and he's not entirely sure where his words are coming from, but they clearly have an impact.

Fuma rises, smirk suddenly gone, and Kento has to actively stop himself from taking an intimidated step back. Fuma's tone is harsh and not amused anymore. “You're ridiculous.”

“No, you know who's ridiculous? You are! Get the hell out of my life, you don't even know me, and yet you feel a pressing need to mess with my personal life?!” Kento yells back at him, and something changes in Fuma's eyes, something dark and a little scary, but at the same time he can tell Fuma's cool façade is slipping away in favour of real anger.

It feels good to finally get Fuma to show himself, because that coy attitude seemed impenetrable and Kento really wants to find out what exactly he ever did to make Fuma hate him so much.

“I would have nothing to do with you if I were to decide, you're just constantly in my way with your stupid face.” Fuma growls, and shoves at Kento to get past him, but Kento just shoves back, which seems to take Fuma by surprise.

“Don't walk away from this you coward, just tell me to my face what the hell your problem is!” Kento yells, and he knows a few people around are looking at them too now, but he doesn't care, too absorbed by his anger to care about what this looks like.

“I've already told you my problem with you, but if it was too complicated for you to take in that not everybody adores you, I'll tell you again.” Fuma tells him in the kind of voice that you'd use on a disobedient three-year-old and Kento's fists clenches. “I just don't like you.”

He's not sure what it is. If it's the degrading way he says it or the fact that he has no reason for his behaviour, or just that he can't take it anymore, but for two seconds, he's blinded by his anger and before he knows it, he's punched Fuma straight in the face.

It hurts his knuckles even though he didn't exactly strike with all his power, and Fuma's head whips to the side and it feels _good_ , at least until he regains enough of himself to realize what he just did.

Fuma raises a shaky hand to his cheekbone, where he's already growing red and it will probably bruise and Kento panics.

“Oh shit sorry, I didn't-” He starts, but then Fuma looks up at him with burning eyes and he falls silent, wondering how much it's going to hurt when Fuma hits him back.

But Fuma just clasps a hand around Kento's wrist, so hard it's almost painful, and tugs him along. Kento's a little disoriented in his shock for a moment, wondering what's going on and what Fuma's going to do to him, and before he manages to collect himself enough to protest, Fuma's shoved him into the small empty guest room and closed the door with a slam.

The silence of the room is loud in Kento's ears, his heart beating fast with adrenaline both from the punch and the sudden fear he feels because he has no idea what's going on as Fuma backs him up against the door he just closed.

“Look, Kikuchi, I'm sorry, I just-” Kento tries to explain himself and squirm away from Fuma who's way too close at the same time, but Fuma won't have it.

“Fucking finally.” Fuma says, voice low and a little scary, and when Kento looks up at his face that's closer to him than it's ever been, there's something in his eyes that he can't explain. “You're not that perfect after all, are you?”

Kento doesn't know what to reply to that, but somehow he doesn't feel as scared anymore, even though Fuma's hands are against the door on either side of his chest and he can't exactly walk away. “What?”

Fuma grins dangerously, like he just got the cream and the canary, then raises a hand to Kento's hair, and Kento tries to tilt his head away, but when he feels the hairclip holding his crown in place being loosened he's confused again. “I've been wanting to knock that Prince Charming crown from your head for quite a while.”

Something Kento's not understanding is going on here, and he tries to figure it out quickly because this is _weird_ , Fuma's attitude is not at all what it usually is.

“What are you doing?” Kento finally asks, completely bewildered because if Fuma doesn't want to punch him in the face, what does he _want_?

“Telling you what my problem is with you.” Fuma says, voice low and eyes dark as he looks straight at Kento, and somehow the realization dawns on Kento before Fuma leans in, brushing his nose against Kento's cheekbone much like Senga had done, before inhaling a long breath in his hair.

Kento's body does something he can't control, like it's shifting the adrenaline function from fright or flight to arousal, a heatwave going through his entire body and it's crazy because he doesn't want anything like this. He considers the possibility that Fuma's just doing this to scare him to death, but something tells him that's not it.

"Oh my god, Kikuchi, I don't-" Kento starts, voice shaking, but Fuma cuts him off and pulls back.

"You know my first name. And you don't like boys and all that, alright. Now give me one chance at bringing you off better than any of your sweet-faced girlfriends have before and I'll let you rethink that." Fuma's voice is low and commanding and Kento has never felt so out of control, struggling through the alcohol to try and wrap his mind around what was just spoken to him.

He's completely distracted by a mix of panic and traitorous arousal at Fuma's hands settling on his hips, hands warm through the fabric of Kento's pants.

"I... I'm drunk." Kento finally says, thinking about that spiked wine he had and hopes that explains at least something, but Fuma just grins.

"Good. Guess you'll be more honest then." Fuma leans in close, speaking against Kento's ear and Kento yelps when there's suddenly fingers under the hem of his shirt.

“What?” Kento gasps involuntarily when the hand sneaks up his stomach and takes the shirt with it, but he can't seem to think of protesting Fuma's hold on him yet because all his body wants is to feel good and this does feel good, and then there's a pinch to a nipple and he makes an embarrassing sound in his surprise that makes Fuma do it again.

“With your reactions.” He explains, voice a little breathy now and Kento bites his lip when there are nails scratching lightly down his abdomen but there's still a sound coming out. “Oh my god you're vocal, I can't wait to get my hand inside your pants.”

Kento's eyes widen at that, because no one has ever said something that dirty to him before, girls don't really tend to, but it makes him much more hot than panicked even though Fuma makes his intentions more than clear and he should want to run. “Fuma-kun...”

Fuma's hips rock closer almost involuntarily when his first name is spoken, and Kento jerks as he feels something firm press against his hipbone. “Yes?”

“I... I don't think... Oh.” He cuts himself off when Fuma's lips brush the shell of his ear before there's a warm and wet touch, and he's so embarrassed of how he reacts to this that he doesn't go on. Fuma's a _guy_ , it should be gross and creepy and _he hates Fuma_ , but this is turning him on in a way that's much more raw and intense than anything he's ever felt before, and he's just a young man. He doesn't have much to put up against his hormones.

“No, I don't think you should think.” Fuma agrees, biting on his earlobe as fingers trace the hem of Kento's pants, and Kento's heart almost stops when those fingers slip a few centimetres inside his pants and his head falls back against the door as he draws a shaky breath and Fuma's lips relocate to his throat. “Fuck, Kento...”

It feels weird to hear his first name in Fuma's voice, in a _male_ voice like this, but it has his cheeks heating up and judging from the way he's desperate for other friction than what his pants provide, it's not from embarrassment.

“You really like this, wow.” Fuma purrs into his neck, nipping a little at the skin and while Kento starts a protest, his hips rock on their own at the good pain, and Fuma inhales sharply. “Doesn't all your sweet girls do this to you? Push you against a wall and make you so hard you're a mess with all your clothes still on? You don't want to know all the times I've woken up in the middle of the night after dreams about doing that.”

Kento actually moans at that, his first, small moan, because dirty talk is completely new to him and he's immediately ashamed of the sound, at least until Fuma reacts to it by tightening his grip on Kento and exhaling harshly.

“Oh fuck.” He mumbles, and suddenly Kento feels himself pushed even closer to the door as Fuma shifts, stepping between his legs and when their erections line up there's another moan torn from Kento's lips because he's never felt anything like it and it's friction in a whole new way, and Fuma's voice is so low. “You are so into this, I can't believe I worried you were really straight.”

Kento frowns at that because who the hell is Fuma to know who he is. His hands find Fuma's hair to tug in protest and Fuma groans. “I am.” He manages, but his voice is deep and breathy and he realizes that he doesn't sound very convincing with another man all over him.

Fuma picks that out as well. “Really? You think it's straight rubbing off on another man? You're even spreading your legs for me babe.”

“I-” Kento starts, but he realizes that he actually is, Fuma in between his legs and his body definitely doesn't mind, which scares the hell out of him. He doesn't even entirely mind being called babe right now. He blames the tequila he was dared to drink.

“You shouldn't even bother with all those cute little girls.” Fuma tells him, and right now, Kento's inclined to agree, especially since Fuma has no reservations to reach for his belt and undo his pants, while the girls he's gotten that far with were nearly scared to reach down and touch him even through his pants. Fuma clearly is not, as his hand slips into Kento's underwear the second his zipper is down, warm fingers wrapping around his length and it's so good and so confident and Kento tries and fails to stifle his moan. “They don't know what they're doing, do they? Fumbly, a little too light, long nails accidentally scratching where they shouldn't...”

Kento finds himself nodding to agree, but he'd agree to most things Fuma says in that gloriously filthy voice while touching him, and he arches a little when Fuma starts stroking him faster, thinking that this kind of thing only happens in porn.

“Shit you're so pretty.” Fuma presses into his skin, and Kento's a little surprised even though he shudders at the vibrations over his skin, because it hasn't dawned upon him until now that Fuma _likes_ him, maybe like all the girls that confess to him in the corridor. Perhaps more.

Then Fuma twists his wrist just right and Kento whines, and Fuma's lips come up to his neck, kisses turning to biting and sucking and it just intensifies Kento's pleasure to the point where he's not sure he can take it anymore.

“Fu... Fuma...” He manages a warning, but Fuma just shudders against him and strokes him faster.

Kento comes with a whimper, one hand still in Fuma's hair nearly tearing it out while the other balls into a fist, and it's so raw and hot, and the come dripping from Fuma's hand onto Kento's pants only makes this dirtier.

He's a little dizzy, not having quite caught his breath when there's a quick press of lips against his parted ones, just for a second, then he's pulled aside and Fuma's out the door before Kento can even breathe.

 

~*~

 

Shit, shit, shit, _shit_. That was the stupidest thing he's ever done in his life, and Fuma has done quite a few of them.

He rushes down the stairs and outside as quickly as he can, not looking at anyone on the way even though someone calls his name, fumbling to get his cigarettes out before he's even out the door. There's a group of girls sitting on the porch giggling, so Fuma quickly rounds the house and sinks down on the grass on the back side, lighting a cigarette and hoping the nicotine will stop his hands from trembling. He tries to ignore that fact that his hand holding the cigarette is still a little sticky.

That was basically sexual assault. He could get reported for this. He frantically smokes to try and calm his nerves. Kento wouldn't report him, would he?

He hadn't meant for it to go this way. He'd just wanted to tell Kento privately that he had difficulties thinking straight around him, but this was another way of letting Kento know that. He just couldn't resist properly, not with Kento pinned between him and the door and looking upset and a little dishevelled from drinking and... Kento didn't object. At least not very convincingly.

Fuma curses under his breath and harshly exhales to be able to get in more smoke. Kento didn't once say he was okay with that so what the hell did Fuma think he was doing. _But he moaned_ , Fuma's mind reminds him, and the erection that had disappeared at his sheer panic is threatening to grow back as he thinks about Kento's sounds. And he came, so he must have at least enjoyed it a little.

Fuma glances at his hand before he can stop himself, seeing a small shine still on his pointer finger and he kind of wants to taste it like the complete creep he is.

“There you are!” A voice suddenly calls and Fuma jumps even though he recognizes the voice.

Haruna stumbles a little in her heels on the grass before she plops down next to him and reaches for the cigarettes in his lap.

“I thought you were busy.” Fuma mutters, letting her take a cigarette and light it.

“I recognize someone fleeing in panic if I see it.” Haruna says simply, and Fuma grimaces, which hurts a lot and he raises a hand to his cheekbone, briefly touching it and it stings. “Yeah what the hell happened to your face?”

“Nakajima hit me.” Fuma says quietly, and Haruna nods, breathing in some smoke.

“You probably deserved that.”

“You have no idea.” Fuma groans, even though he doesn't want to speak of what he did, he kind of does but he'd be _so_ judged.

“What did you do?” Haruna asks calmly, and Fuma smokes angrily for a minute, not knowing how to answer.

“... You know Nakajima.” He starts, not sure how to continue, but Haruna breathes a laugh.

“Yeah and that you're head over heels for him.”

Fuma pauses and stares at her for a moment, but at the same time, he's not really surprised she knows.

“Oh please, you didn't think you were subtle did you?” She smiles. “You're like a little boy pulling a girl's pigtails, it's kind of cute but a little disturbing.”

“I...” Fuma starts again, but he's blushing in shame and breaks off.

“So what did you do to him? Punch him back?” Haruna wonders, puffing out some more smoke.

Her lipgloss sticks to the cigarette and it shines a little between her fingers.

“Not exactly.” Fuma says, knowing he sounds pathetic right now but that's how he feels. “I kind of dragged him into a room and... uhm...”

Haruna gives him a long, calculating look and then raises an eyebrow in suspicion. “... You did... What exactly?”

Fuma inhales another drag and then decides to say it with his exhale. “I kind of got him off.”

Haruna's mouth falls open and it would look funny if she wasn't so shocked. “... And he let you!?”

Fuma bites his lip, not quite sure how to answer that, but Haruna's eyes widen even more.

“He didn't but you did it anyway? Oh my god Fuma!”

“No no no! I mean... He didn't say no. But he didn't exactly say yes either.” Fuma hurries to explain himself, almost feeling like he wants to cry with how scared he is right now, and Haruna seems to notice.

“... Well that's a mess for sure.” She sighs, but she calms down. “If you actually got him off he can't have hated it. He wasn't unconscious was he?”

“No!” Fuma protests vehemently, wondering how she could even think something like that of him. But then again, what he did isn't exactly what a good person would do.

“Just checking.” Haruna says, but she's smiling. “What did he say after?”

“I don't know I bolted.” Fuma admits with a groan, and Haruna rolls her eyes.

“Of course you did, you're not exactly brave.” She tells him, but then sighs and lays her head in his lap. “Well, I'm happy you've finally admitted to yourself how completely gay you are and that I'll finally have a best gay friend.”

Fuma just calls her some bad names and asks for another cigarette, but he can't say that the closeness doesn't feel a little comforting.

 

~*~

 

Kento doesn't tell anyone what happened. Even though Shori slipped into the room to find him sitting on the floor and staring at nothing, he didn't exactly say what had happened, except that Fuma didn't hurt him.

After that, Kento couldn't make himself enjoy the rest of the party, and after a while he went to find Sayaka and offered to care for Kawaei because he was tired of the party anyway.

When he wakes up in Kawaei's bed with her snuggled up against his arm and Shori sharing a futon on the floor with Sayaka, he thinks he must have imagined the whole thing somehow. Until he gets up and puts his contacts in and realizes there's a small hickey on his throat. He stares at it for one full minute, and his cheeks heat up in some kind of mixture of shame and embarrassment.

Now that there's no alcohol clouding his brain, he can't for his life understand why he didn't shove Fuma off or at least _said_ something. He raises slightly shaky fingers to brush the little mark, and it aches a tiny bit. It feels... weird. Not exactly gross, but weird.

There are too many thoughts spinning around in his head and he kind of feels like going back to sleep and not having to wake up and think about it again, but the main question in his head is why he didn't object himself. He does feel a little tainted, like he did something dirty he definitely shouldn't have, but he doesn't feel violated. Which is actually weird since the whole thing wasn't exactly consensual. Somehow it fits so well with Fuma's image that he'd just pin someone against a wall and dirty talk them into letting him touch them that Kento almost rolls his eyes. Still, it obviously worked on him, for some reason.

He's luckily distracted from thinking too much when the others wake up, Sayaka bright eyed and bushy tailed while Kawaei whines like she's dying and Shori seems concerned about having possibly cuddled Sayaka in his sleep.

There are random people scattered over the house and sleeping in the most unergonomic positions, and they find Yui on the couch with her face in the awkward guy's shirt, thankfully with their clothes still on.

After some effort, they get her to wake up, and she doesn't seem too hungover since she sleepily asks if she should make breakfast. The awkward guy stirs awake and mutters a question to the couch about why it's so short.

Eventually, they're normally dressed and having eggs and bacon and coffee in the kitchen, Kawaei stuffed with headache pills and half-asleep still, and the others getting to know the awkward guy. Apparently his name is Tamamori, and he's a friend of Senga of all people. He's cute enough, if a little weird since he sometimes randomly address inanimate objects, but Yui seems to like him anyway.

When they start cleaning up, Sayaka picks up on Kento's hickey and asks loudly who made that. Kento laughs it off and tells her to mind her own business even if that just makes her more curious, starting to question if it was someone she doesn't like or something since he doesn't want to say. Kento keeps a good face and refuses to tell her, but when he meets Shori's eyes, they're unnervingly knowing.

It takes a good three hours to clean the house, and even though it's Kawaei who's going to get scolded and most likely grounded if it doesn't look like it should, she's not helping much. Sayaka clearly enjoys waking people and throwing them out, so she takes that task upon herself, while Yui goes through the kitchen along with Tamamori and Kento and Shori try their best with the rest of the house. When they're done, Kawaei is still in no state to greet her parents since they have no idea there had been anything but a dinner party without alcohol, so Sayaka agrees to take her home with her. Yui already left with Tamamori, while everyone exchanged knowing looks.

During the day, Kento's been trying to push away the thoughts about what happened yesterday, but as soon as he doesn't specifically concentrate on something else or someone talks to him, they return like a confused mess in his head and he's a little afraid of being alone with them later because he doesn't have anyone he feels he could talk to about this.

But when Sayaka tells him and Shori that they can leave, she'll do the rest, and Kento's walking with Shori towards the train station in a completely empty street, he feels like maybe he's meant to mention it after all.

“Hey, can I talk to you about something?” Kento starts, and Shori looks up with a calm expression.

“Sure.” He agrees easily.

But Kento doesn't go on, because he has no idea where to start, not with Shori who thinks love is a waste of time and calls them gross when they discuss their experiences. Shori is his best friend, but somehow, he feels like Shori looks down on him when he talks about things he's done with girls, like he's a little gross somehow. He knows that's not at all Shori's intention, of course, but it normally keeps him from going into detail with him, and this is about to get detailed.

“Is this about what happened with Kikuchi?” Shori asks then, thankfully breaking Kento out of his own head.

Kento slowly nods, but he still doesn't know where to start.

“You can tell me whatever it is you know.” Shori says, watching Kento with honest eyes, but it's what he says next that makes Kento overcome all his hesitation. “It's not like I can't do the maths, you were alone in a room with him and came out with a hickey.”

“I don't know what happened!” Kento bursts out, then remembers anyone could walk by and he lowers his voice. “I thought he was going to hit me or at least yell at me or something, and instead he pushed me against the door and smelled my hair and... touched me and called me pretty and... I don't even know.”

He expects Shori to be disgusted, but when Kento turns to look at him, his face is troubled, like he's trying to solve a particularly difficult equation. “Well. He's always been interested in you I think.”

“... What do you mean?” Kento asks weakly, feeling like all the tension in his body left with the confession and he has no energy left.

“He's asked about you once or twice, and as soon as I mention you he looks... a little different? And yeah, he's obviously in your way all the time.” Shori explains slowly. “But I didn't really pay attention to him because he's annoying.”

Kento doesn't answer, because the fact that Fuma might actually _like_ him is a really scary thought.

“Did you like it?” Shori asks then, a genuine question and Kento instantly blushes because he never expected Shori to ask something like that. “Since you apparently let him touch you.”

“I...” He starts, then trails off again, because he doesn't know, and if he did like it, he's not sure he wants to figure it out. “I... Protested, a little, but... I didn't stop him and I can't figure out why I didn't.”

Shori nods slowly, but doesn't seem like he has something to say to that, and Kento can't keep from letting his worries out.

“It felt different. Like, more intense. But I like girls.” He says, mostly to reassure himself. “And even if I could like boys, I wouldn't like him. I hate him.”

“Well.” Shori smiles. “At least you punched him in the face, that should help?”

“Yeah. I did.” Kento agrees, but he doesn't feel like that helps much anymore. Besides, his knuckles hurt.

 

~*~

 

 


	4. Chapter 4

Fuma's mother is not impressed by the spectacular bruise on his cheek when he saunters down for breakfast well past lunchtime. In fact, she almost drops a plate in her shock when she sees him, but quickly goes from shocked to furious.

It hadn't hurt so much yesterday, but Fuma figures it was the alcohol dulling his senses, because now, it stings like a bitch and things like smiling or chewing makes it worse. And, as he learns, his mother fussing over it with some cream while scolding him about not cooling it immediately and asking what the hell he's gotten himself into this time and that he's grounded and god knows what.

Fuma tunes her out, but he can't shove her away, so he lets her tend to it even though he feels like going back to sleep until next month.

It's only when she starts talking about him not going to school like this that he raises his voice and tells her not to be ridiculous, which causes her to argue back, and in the end he's sent back to his room with an ice-pack and told to stay there.

He'd stayed on the grass with Haruna until she was convinced he'd calmed down enough, but Fuma's still not sure he's calm enough. He tries to distract himself, with games and movies and internet and all the things he normally procrastinates with, but all he can think about is Kento and how the hell he's going to handle this mess he got himself into. His only comfort is that this will stay private business, because Kento won't want it to get out either.

When he goes to school Monday morning despite his mother's complaints, he's decided to just completely ignore that Kento exists, for everyone's sake, but mostly his own.

Only that plan is shattered as soon as he greets his friends.

Senga is about as upset about his bruise as his mother was, while Nikaido mostly looks impressed and Tomomi counters with unimpressed. But it's Haruna who ruins everything.

“Hey Fuma.” She sidles up to him with a cryptic smile, and Fuma already knows it can't be good. “I heard Nakajima's got a hickey, can you believe that?”

“... So what?” Nikaido asks with a frown, definitely not understanding what that has to do with them, but Fuma barely hears him.

He opens his mouth to say something, but nothing comes out and that might be for the best. Her smile obviously implies it's his, and it makes him feel a twinge of nausea from the reminder that it did really happen. But a tiny part of him is also a little proud.

“Good for him, I mean.” Haruna shrugs, and Nikaido seems to write that off as a weird girl comment, but both Senga and Tomomi are looking suspiciously between Haruna and Fuma.

“Yeah good for him, I'm sure not getting any since there's apparently pictures of me with two 'hot girls' on Facebook so guess who's pissed.” Nikaido mutters, and Fuma's never been more thankful for Nikaido's bitching about his girlfriend.

“Oh you poor thing.” Senga says sarcastically, but Nikaido is immune to sarcasm and just pouts.

Fuma doesn't really listen to the conversation about what everyone did during the party, especially not when Haruna tries to identify the guys she made out with using Tomomi's pictures.

He's distracted trying to remind himself that he was supposed to ignore Kento. For everyone's sake. Mostly his own. But he desperately wants to see for himself if what Haruna said is true.

It's a really awkward math class before lunch sitting next to Sato Shori, because Fuma has nothing to say to him and Shori keeps looking at the bruise on his cheek like he knows a secret. Honestly, Fuma's terrified that Shori does know and it makes him unable to look the other in the eyes, and he definitely can't drop some ignorant comments like he normally does.

“If I'd known all you needed to behave normally was a punch in the face I would have probably dared doing it long ago.” Shori mutters when he rises to leave, then hurries out of the classroom before Fuma can even open his mouth. Coward, Fuma thinks bitterly, deciding to save his comeback for next math class.

Someone taps his shoulder and he turns to see Senga eyeing him with a raised eyebrow and a grin.

“Did Sato win today?” He asks, and Fuma glares at him.

“Shut up.” He mutters, shoving his books into his bag and heads for the door.

“I'm pretty sure even the teacher wondered what's off with you today.” Senga goes on, tone thoughtful. “If you want to maintain your image you should really shape up, or everyone's gonna start punching you in the face when you're a douchebag.”

“My mom drugged me.” Fuma tells him as an explanation, which is actually true but he didn't get enough painkillers to feel out of it. She probably wanted him to learn his lesson through pain. “Come on, I need a smoke.”

 

~*~

 

Kento's walking with Yui to meet up with the rest of their group, and he's smiling as he's listening to her talk about Tamamori and that he's asked her out on a date and basically just rambles on about all the things that's amazing about him.

She's cute, and Kento's happy for her, but he can't make himself encourage her talking like he would normally. Luckily, she doesn't notice, just goes on and on about where Tamamori might take her and what they're going to do.

Usually, Kento would have a lot to say about that, because he's taken a lot of girls on dates, but right now that is one of the things he's questioning about himself to the point where he's fearing he's heading into a personal crisis. Because he's been on a lot of dates. And there has been all kinds of girls, different interests and personalities since even though most of them are shy and cute to begin with, they come out of their shell after a while. He's taken a few on another date. He's had one girlfriend, that he dated for eight months, which means he's had time to try most things he'd wanted to do both romantically and sexually. He was in love with her, he's sure of that, and he enjoyed being with her, touching her, everything.

But nothing has ever felt like what he's feeling now. He can't get Fuma out of his head, and even though he tries to think of other things Fuma nestles his way back into his thoughts to the point where Kento almost feels possessed. He thinks about what happened at the party, about the things Fuma said to him and the way he said it, about how confident his hands were and somehow he wants to know more about Fuma. Wants to know who he is and what he's done before and if he thinks about Kento as much as Kento thinks about him.

He's tried being disgusted, but when he's honest with himself, he knows he's not, and that's the scary part. He did like it, that's driving him crazy, because he's never felt as attractive and hot as he did with Fuma, which he's reminded of every time he touches that little mark on his neck since it still aches as it heals and it makes him feel almost feverish.

The absolute worst part is that out of all people, it had to be Fuma. Kento's been through all the interactions they've had in the past that he can remember, and he still thinks Fuma's behaviour at those times was stupid and immature, and he can't think of a single time except when they were alone in that guest room that he's seen Fuma be anything but a douchebag. Still, a lot of people like him, and Kento can't help but wonder if Fuma's just acting like this towards him. Because Fuma... Likes him?

“Hey, are you awake?” Yui asks suddenly and Kento looks up, smiling apologetically, then notices Shori and the other girls standing before them.

“Oh. Yeah, sorry.” He says, and Shori just gives him a knowing look while Kawaei and Sayaka pounce Yui for more details about her ~boyfriend~, Kawaei wanting to know where they're going for their date, and Sayaka demanding to know how far they've gotten.

Shori smoothly steps up to Kento's side instead, giving the girls a dejected look.

“You okay?” He asks quietly, and Kento sighs because he seriously can't answer that. “Well Kikuchi's a mess today, if that helps.”

It actually does, a little, Kento thinks, and so he slowly nods. Today hasn't been his best of days, since apparently rumours travel fast and everyone seems to know he punched Fuma in the face, and there's been a few girls looking at him in betrayal after a confirming look at his neck. He stole some of his mother's make-up to try and cover the mark up since he can't wear a scarf, but even if it did help, it's not exactly invisible. Technically, he should be allowed to have one, he can't help but think, it's not like he's ever claimed to be innocent, but apparently a lot of girls beg to differ.

Also, the girls Fuma hangs out with that are in his class, Itano Tomomi and Kojima Haruna, gave him long calculating looks the second he stepped into the classroom, and even though he did his best to ignore them, he can't help but think that they know and he had to keep himself from blushing in shame right there.

“Come on now boys, we're having lunch!” Sayaka calls, and Kento smiles and follows them towards the cafeteria.

He makes a good effort during lunch to act normal, and apparently it works since nobody questions his mood or health or anything, even though he spends a few seconds too long looking around, not sure if he wants to see Fuma or not. He's not there, however, so Kento relaxes and concentrates on his friends, figuring that he's not seeing Fuma today then and maybe that's good after all.

They're heading for their afternoon classes, Sayaka having fallen back to talk to Shori instead since Yui and Kawaei are apparently in “fuzzy-mushy-land” right now, when they turn a corner and Kento stops so suddenly Sayaka and Shori almost walk into him.

Kikuchi Fuma is leaning against the wall of the corridor while talking to Senga, who's standing before him checking his phone, looking like they're waiting for someone, close enough that Kento can smell outside air and cigarette smoke.

Kento doesn't know what the feeling going through him like a jolt is exactly, but it's not really pleasant. Especially not when he sees Fuma's cheek and he can't keep from staring. It's purple all the way from his cheekbone and back to his temple and looks swollen, and he understands that people are talking about it because _god_ that looks a lot worse than he imagined.

Then Fuma turns his head and looks straight into Kento's eyes, and there's another strange jolt that Kento can't define when Fuma just meets his eyes for a millisecond before his gaze darts to Kento's neck like he knows what to look for, then away again.

Senga obviously notices something, since he turns around to see what's behind him, eyes widening a little when he sees Kento.

“Come on, let's go.” Sayaka mutters, brushing past Kento to keep walking, Shori in tow.

“I...” Kento starts, then licks his lips as he makes a split second decision. “I'll be right there.”

Fuma looks up at the words, his expression alarmed, and Senga smoothly says he's meeting the others on the way instead.

Yui gives Kento a look like he's crazy, but he just nods an okay and they eventually leave, Shori with a long look over his shoulder.

The silence is suffocating when they're the only ones left in the corridor, and Fuma keeps looking at anything but Kento.

After five long seconds, Kento can't take it anymore, stepping forward to grab Fuma's wrist and drag him into the nearest empty classroom. The treatment seems to shock Fuma enough that he doesn't protest, at least until the door is closed behind them and it couldn't be further from the last time they were alone in a room together.

 

~*~

 

“What?” Fuma demands as soon as Kento closes the door, tone harsh and snappy since his heart is beating wildly with adrenaline and he's honestly terrified. The second he saw Kento his heart stopped for a moment, and it hasn't calmed down since, his insides a fluttery mess of fear and something embarrassingly heated at seeing the pretty well hidden reddish spot on his neck that Fuma had never meant to leave there.

“You're such a coward, do you know that?” Kento tells him, and Fuma has a feeling that wasn't what he'd wanted to say, since Kento's dark eyes widen a little after the irritated words slip from his lips.

“Can't see how you're so brave.” Fuma replies, the venom in his voice coming naturally after being accused of something like that, even though he's very aware it's true.

Kento's jaw clenches in anger and Fuma blames the state of himself for not even filtering the thought that it looks kind of hot. “You know what, I was about to apologize for hitting you but you deserved it.”

“Yeah everyone keeps telling me that, so thank you, are you done?” Fuma asks with a small mocking smile, which just seems to tick Kento off even more and his eyes flash with the same kind of anger Fuma last saw just before he was hit.

“No.” Kento says firmly after he obviously quenches the urge to punch Fuma again, but he's not looking very calm with the way his hands are clenched into fists. “Aren't you supposed to say something?!”

“Like what?” Fuma inquires, and he can't really maintain the attitude as another wave of panic washes over him at the prospect of actually talking about this.

“Like... Explain yourself!” Kento sounds a little desperate and Fuma bites his lip, having no idea what to say. “Explain what the hell you did to me because I don't understand why I didn't push you away or why I can't get you out of my head. Why did you do it?!”

Kento's words hit Fuma harder than his actual punch had done, and he's struck speechless, the sentence _I can't get you out of my head_ playing on repeat in Fuma's mind as he just stares at Kento. It can't mean what he wants it to mean.

When there's no response, Kento lets out a groan of frustration and sinks down to sit on a bench, hands a little shaky as he runs one of them through his hair, and Fuma licks his lips nervously, having no idea how to handle Kento looking so vulnerable.

The first time he'd seen Nakajima Kento, he'd reacted so vehemently he scared himself, which was what caused a completely unpleasant comment to come out of him and this whole thing started. He'd never seen a prettier boy in his life, and he was _not_ ready for what that meant. He learned things about Kento, like his name and class and how he was so popular among the girls and his grades were so good. It was frustrating that every new thing just built up a more perfect image of someone Fuma knew he would never be able to have. He hated how Kento was so perfect, and he wanted to do anything to break him, to see behind that polite pretty smile and prince-like behaviour, and he'd thought he'd finally done it when Kento punched him. No matter how much it hurt, he had finally made Kento's perfect image break down for Fuma to see behind.

Now that Kento sits before him on a bench, looking upset and confused and angry at the same time, Fuma can't help but think that this is the result he'd wanted all along, but now he's not so sure anymore because he doesn't want to see Kento upset.

“Did you do it just to fuck me up?” Kento finally asks, voice not angry or loud anymore but cold and hard. “Because that's really damn cruel if-”

“I did it because I like you, okay? Damn.” Fuma bursts out before he can stop himself, then bites his lip and hurries to look away because he doesn't want the response.

“... You like me.” Kento repeats, voice low and even, and when Fuma eventually looks back up, Kento's looking at him with hard eyes. “You really are a coward.”

“Yeah, so maybe I am.” Fuma agrees, voice harsh and bitter as things he's never spoken come out of him. “Maybe I am a coward who falls for the pretty boy every girl wants and doesn't dare even approach him, because I'm convinced said pretty boy wants nothing to do with a guy who doesn't give a damn about school, or courtesy, and who's also a _guy_.”

His fingers fidget for a cigarette to calm his nerves, but he figures that for once, he should stand his ground and he looks back at Kento who just stares at him with wide eyes.

“You could have at least been nice to me!” Kento finally exclaims, his tone almost desperate again, like he's scared but Fuma can't figure out what exactly he's scared of.

“I probably could have been if I hadn't spent so long denying that I like you too much and that you remind me of that every single time I see you.” Fuma growls, shame warming his cheeks. “Now just call me a creep and walk out of here, I think you've humiliated me enough.”

“I...” Kento starts, but breaks off with a frustrated groan. “That's not what this is about, why are you so dumb!?”

“What the hell else could this be about?!” Fuma returns, just as frustrated because he just wants to get out of here and hide somewhere and cry because he's a weak person. “If you want an apology for what I did to you, then fine, I'm sorry!”

That was apparently not the right thing to say, because Kento looks like he'd appreciate punching Fuma again.

“You're so goddamn stupid.” Kento groans, standing up and glaring at Fuma with a frustration in his eyes that doesn't seem to be all about Fuma. “I've never felt anything like that before and it _freaks me out_ , and you did it to me so take some damn responsibility already!”

Fuma's body reacts before his brain does, like it normally does around Kento, and when he catches up with himself, he's stepped forward to grab Kento's collar and kissed him.

It's a quick kiss with no finesse, and his own panic is what makes him pull back and he starts to let go of Kento, heart beating in his ears and his lips tingling from the soft touch.

But he doesn't get very far, a hand grabbing his own jacket and he's pulled close again, and Fuma tries to understand this sudden change in Kento's behaviour for about two seconds before Kento kisses him, hesitantly, but it has Fuma's mind going blank.

He kisses back without thinking, the grip he still has on Kento's collar tightening as he pulls Kento even closer, tilting his head for a better angle and tries to convince Kento that this is the best kiss he's ever had and that he shouldn't pull away.

It seems to work, or something, at least Kento keeps kissing him back, and Fuma doesn't dare move at all in fear of this ending because it's exactly what he's kept denying that he wants.

Eventually, Kento pushes him back, but he doesn't look angry, just breathless and confused and Fuma bites his bottom lip to keep it from tingling and curses himself for making Kento do something without his consent. Again. He can't even blame alcohol this time.

“I have no idea what I'm doing.” Kento says after a moment of silence, lips shiny as he keeps taking deep breaths and he's _so fucking pretty_ Fuma can't even answer. But Kento goes on, voice still breathy and his words lack passion. “I don't even like you, you're always a complete asshole.”

“I can be nice.” Fuma hurries to assure, not even caring about that he's not very cool right now.

“I don't like boys.” Kento says, ignoring Fuma's input, and the only thing that keeps Fuma from breaking down is that Kento doesn't appear to be talking to him; more like some kind of reassurance for himself.

There's a silence, and Fuma speaks before he can change his mind. “But you like this.”

Kento sighs and sinks back to sit on the bench again. “... But I like this.”

Something explodes in Fuma's chest, he's not exactly sure what but it takes his breath away and relief starts to spread, the relief of knowing Kento at least doesn't think he's disgusting.

“... So now what?” Kento asks, looking up at Fuma with eyes that mostly look defeated, and Fuma takes a deep breath.

He can't keep the tiny smile from tugging at his lips when he speaks though. “I could take you on a date? So you can get to know me and see if you could like me?”

Kento just gapes at him, and it looks so funny that Fuma can't help laughing at how bizarre this situation is. Those are Kento's words, those that he told the girl with the chocolate and etched themselves into Fuma's memory as he started to hate that poor girl before he even knew her name.

When Kento finds his voice again, he sounds a little bewildered, but Fuma also thinks he hears a tiny bit of amusement in there. “I've never been taken on a date.”

“It's about time then.” Fuma says, wondering if Kento just agreed or if he's just delusional as usual.

When Kento slowly nods, smiling a little hesitantly, Fuma feels like his heart just left his chest. “Maybe it is.”

 

~*~

 

The girls are on him like vultures the second he returns, demanding to know what happened and how it went, but Kento doesn't know what to say. He doesn't want to lie to them, but he doesn't want to tell them about it either, and so he ends up opening his mouth and closing it again. Thankfully, Shori tells them to just drop the gossip for once and let Kento have some privacy, and Kento's never been happier for Shori's snappy mother tone.

After school, he walks home with Shori, who of course demands to hear the story as payment for protecting Kento from the girls. He's joking, but it's not like Kento hadn't planned to tell Shori because he needs _help_.

He's still not sure why he'd agreed. Or why he'd let Fuma kiss him again after he'd agreed. He'd thought, somewhere in his confused mind, that if Fuma confessed there should be a date, just like everyone else. Except Fuma is about as different from everyone else as it can get.

Somehow, what matters the least in the whole date-scenario is that Fuma is a boy. He's never felt anything for another man before, but kissing Fuma sure didn't feel bad and he's not that opposed to reconsider his sexuality if that's necessary. But he's terrified of having something official with a man, of having to look his mother in the eyes and tell her he's dating a boy, of letting his friends know, of letting _everyone_ know. So he tries not to think about that possibility.

Shori isn't fazed by the story, just raises an eyebrow and tells Kento good luck and that hopefully Fuma has a completely different personality hidden in there somewhere, and besides he can't be all stupid. He likes Kento after all. It's such a sweet thing to say that Kento almost gets a little teary and he has to hug Shori before they split up to go their own directions.

It should feel weird receiving a mail from Fuma and settling that this Saturday works fine, but it doesn't. It doesn't even have that date-tension to it that Kento normally feels, like he has something to live up to and needs to think about that all the time. Fuma just writes there's this aquarium with a huge nasty octopus he wants to see and asks if that's okay.

It's perfect, because Kento doesn't even have to worry about what they're going to do: he already knows.

What does feel weird, is that Fuma is nice to him in school. Not that they interact much, but there are no glares or superior smiles, and Shori comes out of math class and looks straight at Kento and wonders if he's magic somehow.

In the end, none of that keeps him from being more nervous than he's ever been on a date when he goes to meet Fuma that Saturday. Kento's early, because he'd rather be early than late, but still he finds Fuma leaning against the wall next to the entrance, hands in his pocket and wearing a black leather jacket with white details.

“You're early.” Kento points out when he's close enough to be heard, making Fuma jump and look up.

He expects a bitchy comment as usual, but Fuma takes a second to answer, looking Kento over once first. “I'm normally late so I made an effort.” He shrugs, but there's a small smile on his lips that quickly kills Kento's worries if he overdressed or underdressed or just forgot to dress. Except that he spent fifteen minutes deciding what to wear so he's pretty sure he didn't forget to get dressed.

“Nice jacket.” Kento says because the silence is starting to feel a little uncomfortable.

Fuma glances down at it as if to remind himself what is currently on his body, then looks up at Kento with a surprised expression. “... Thanks. You wanna go inside?”

They do go inside, and even though it's odd being paid for, it feels pretty good too. Kento's wallet definitely likes it.

He's been on aquarium dates before, but there's definitely something different about this one. Mostly, Fuma is not exactly passive and clinging to Kento's arm and asking what he thinks before he comments on anything. It's more along the lines of “Iew, look at that thing it's so gross iewww I have to take a picture and send it to Senga he'll flip” which is actually hilarious and Kento easily relaxes and laughs more than he has in a while.

The best part is when they find the “huge, nasty octopus” and Fuma almost doesn't even want to step close because it's gross and slimey and super creepy, but he still has to poke at it through the glass like a three-year-old, then flies back when the animal moves.

Kento laughs so much he almost can't breathe, and even though Fuma looks offended at first and threatens him not to tell anyone about this, Fuma's features then soften into a small smile that Kento has never seen before. It's nice.

They talk mostly about the fish, but Kento finds the personal things he learns about Fuma a much more interesting subject. For example when Fuma points at the clown fish and tells a story about his baby sister always yelling “Nemo” at the top of her lungs whenever she sees them and it's embarrassing. Kento laughs and asks how old she is, and it turns out she really is a baby, just a couple years old and perhaps a bit of an afterthought.

It definitely changes Kento's idea of Fuma, because he'd never have thought of Fuma having a baby sister that he obviously loves to death.

Kento doesn't have siblings himself, but he loves kids so he's almost a little jealous, which makes Fuma smile and say he can borrow Fuma's siblings whenever he wants, especially his brother, who's thirteen and a complete pain.

Kento just laughs and comments that everyone's a pain when they're thirteen. Which makes Fuma launch into some story about when he and his friends set fire to their school books with hairspray and a lighter, and Kento can't help but think that it's difficult not to like Fuma when he's like this.

 

~*~

 

It's surreal, the whole thing. Going out with Kento. Honestly, Fuma half expected him not to turn up. But here he is, standing two metres from Fuma and looking at polka dotted jellyfish with a fascinated expression, his face illuminated by the purple-ish light and he's so pretty it hurts a little.

It's going surprisingly smoothly, and Fuma mentally reminds himself to thank Haruna later for the very threatening mail she sent him this morning about remembering to be himself and not act like an asshole.

It seems to work, a little, because at least Kento doesn't appear to be suffering. He's laughing a lot, which is really appealing and something Fuma has only seen from a distance before. He can't help but bitterly think that he normally has the opposite effect on Kento's expressions, but on the other hand, he's making up for it now.

He spent the entire week leading up to 11 o'clock this Saturday pending from terrified to fluttery excited, and even though it was exhausting, it's good in a way. Now, he doesn't have the energy to freak out even when he says something supposedly wrong or stupid.

“Why are they dotted? Why doesn't it say on this info, it's obviously what you want to know the most, isn't it?” Kento comments, looking at the lit up info sheet about the jellyfish.

Fuma grins and offers to google it for him.

Fuma has been on dates before. Not nearly as many as Kento must have, but a few, and they've all been disasters. If he's honest with himself, it's been his own fault, because he never really liked any of the girls he went out with and sometimes he'd even found it a little gross when they tried to hold his hand or just get close.

This is nothing like that. He's relaxed and having fun and his only goal is to let Kento know that he can be a decent person. Perhaps even a little fun to hang out with.

They spend a good two hours walking around the aquarium and spotting the grossest fish, which is a lot more fun than looking at pretty things, and when they're approaching the exit, Fuma almost says they could look at everything again because he doesn't want to leave.

Kento buys a cell phone strap with a dolphin in his birthstone (which is apparently aquamarine and March, which Fuma will definitely remember), and Fuma almost calls him gay out loud, but figures that might be counter-productive. Or at least not very tactful.

They step out on the street, but then awkwardly pause since none of them knows how to proceed, and Fuma tries to figure something out quickly, maybe ask about lunch or something, but then Kento opens his mouth and Fuma forgets everything he had in mind.

“I had fun. You really can be nice.” He smiles, and Fuma gets really busy trying to fight off his blush.

“I told you so.” He says, but his voice lacks the bitchiness he normally has without him even trying to take it away.

“I wouldn't mind eating something now, would you?” Kento goes on, and Fuma grins.

“I was just thinking about that.” He admits, making Kento smile, and that could be the best feeling ever. He also wouldn't mind maybe going for karaoke or something and perhaps make out a little. Or something. Maybe.

“Great, then let's go.” Kento says, and Fuma follows while trying to calm his feelings down enough to function. “I think I like being taken on dates, it's nice being paid for.”

Fuma raises an eyebrow and attempts an unimpressed look, but he breaks out laughing out of something similar to relief, or maybe it's hope. “I guess I'll have to take you out again then.”

“I think so. My wallet definitely likes it, and I kind of do too so.”

Fuma definitely likes the sound of that. If Kento wants to see him again, he must have done something right.

“Happy I'm not just pleasing your wallet.” Fuma counters, and Kento rolls his eyes but grins and calls him stupid.

Fuma thinks that Kento could probably call him anything right now and he'd still be happy. If Kento wants to go out again, everything is fine, and he can worry about complicated stuff like the future later.

 

~*~

 

END


End file.
